A Breach of Trust
by jedlee07
Summary: He broke his promise, thanks to paranoia and a polygraph.  He'd told her she could trust him.  Multi-chapter episode tag for 104, "No Quarter".  Chapter 4: "Where were you?"
1. Auggie

**Okay, this is my first Covert Affairs fic, and I pretty much just took a bunch of the awesome quotes from episode four (No Quarter) and expounded on them. Quotes in italics are flashbacks using the lines from the show (I took six pages of notes for all my favorites). Anything in bold is supposed to be the thoughts of the main person (in this chapter it's Auggie). I know at the end we're to assume he went home after Joan told him he passed his polygraph, but for this fic I have him staying in his office till Annie gets home. With so many details from the show, I'm bound to have messed up somewhere, so please be kind when you find those discrepancies! **

**I watched all four episodes like, two days after the fourth one aired. As soon as I "met" Auggie in the first episode, I caught the Annie/Auggie bug that's going around, and will hopefully never leave. Auggie is my favorite character EVER, and that's saying something, because I watch a LOT of tv and movies. **

**Okay, I'm done rambling. There should be at least three other chapters, all revolving around this episode and using quotes from the episode. Enjoy! ~Jed**

* * *

August Anderson sat in his darkened tech booth in the DPD office, a blank expression on his face and a Gripmaster in his hand. He squeezed the device in a slow, steady pace in an attempt to control his anger. Truth was, he was pissed, absolutely fuming over the day's events. It had started off fine enough—Annie finally landed in Switzerland, safe and sound and comparing him to an oversized, slobbering canine. Suddenly she spotted her contact and ended their banter.

Then he heard about the explosion.

On the outside he remained calm, for the most part. Things like this happened every now and then within the agency, although with Annie it seemed to be a regular occurrence. He mentally recited the protocol for going to ground, prayed that that was _exactly_ what she was doing and waited for her to call.

Inside, however, he was a bit freaked. He'd liked Annie from the moment she walked through the door on her first day at Langley. And that was _before_ she'd said she liked Mingus. Truth was, she had spunk. She was determined, tenacious and, oddly enough, honorable and honest. She hadn't even asked the obvious question of how he'd lost his eyesight—so obvious a question that he'd delivered the story before she even had a chance to ask. No, she wasn't curious as to how he'd been blinded. Annie Walker just wanted to know about the headphones—completely overlooking the fact that he was blind and instead, just wondering how the headphones could help him complete his work.

Complete his work. Like finding her, for instance, when she went off the grid. He had breathed a huge sigh of relief when she called him after the explosion.

_"Hey! Are you alright? The bomb—" _**The bomb could have killed you.**

_"I'm fine. I think. Have you ever tried to disguise a government-issue titanium case on the run before? I can assure you, it's not easy."_

_ "Alright, so you've got the package. Which one?"_

_ "Mine, ours."_

_ "And your twenty?"_

_ "Downtown. On foot. On my way to the Turk's. That's still the backup, correct?"_

_ "That would be our backup, yes."_

_ "They _wanted_ a briefcase. Think it might be time to read me in on what I'm carrying here?"_

**Yeah, that'd be nice, seeing as you nearly died for it. **_"That information has not gone vertical yet. Tell me what happened with the pass. Did you establish a visual with the contact?"_

_ "Yep. Both of them."_

_ "Both of them?"_

_ "Seems like orange wristbands and metal briefcases are all the rage in Zurich, Auggie. It's getting hard to tell who's on my team out here."_

_ "I am, okay? I'm on your team. I'm with you all the way home."_

He'd promised her. He told her he was on her side, that he'd be there for her until she set foot back on American soil and came back to Langley. And then he'd broken that promise, all because of Arthur Campbell's paranoid hunt for the Liza Hearn leak.

He thought back to the last time he'd spoken with her today.

_"If you were Mossad, where would you stash your briefcase?"_

_ "Hold on. I'm pulling his 201 up now…Alright, Eyal Avine, three years IDF, Field Intelligence Squad. And two years with Mogav in the Golan Heights before becoming Mossad in '98. Uh oh. Wow."_

_ "What?"_

_ "You said this guy tried to kill you?" _ **Haven't you had enough of that already, Annie? **

_"Yeah, with a piano wire. Why?"_

_ "This guy was with Kidon for five years. A hard squad—assassinations, kidnappings. This brush pass seems way beneath his pay grade."  
"And yet it's not beneath mine?"_

_ "I don't see anything in his file. Maybe he's a burnout case, or a drinker."_

_ "Yeah or maybe he just pissed somebody off somewhere. You know he's the kind of guy that likes to piss people off. 'A Mossad man and his package'—have you ever heard anything so ridicu—whoa my god."_

_ "What?" _**Don't tell me someone's trying to kill you again. I can't take three attempts on your life in one day. Tell me it's something completely innocuous. **

_"Uh, nothing. Just tell me you're working on getting me home."_

**That I can do.** _"I'm working on bringing you home__**." **_** I already told you I'd bring you back here.**

_"Okay, is it possible this guy's a double agent? I mean, are we even _sure_ he was my contact in the first place?"_

_ "Well, you can send me his picture and I can try to match up his ID."_

_ "Hoh—I can send you a picture, but, uh, not sure it'll work for ID purposes."_

_ "All right, listen, they want to know where you dropped that briefcase. We're going to send someone to go pick it up." _He knew what her next words would be, and the tone she would use to deliver them.

_"I can still complete the mission. I mean, I can't stand this guy, but I can still make the pass."_

_ "Annie, this is not a reflection on you. This is standard operating procedure." _**But I'm proud of you, for still wanting to finish this, for not giving up.**

_"Of course, okay. Oh my go—what are you doing?"_

He heard her cry of shock and then the phone went silent. His heart rate picked up a few beats per minute and his ears strained to hear her voice.

"Annie? Annie?"

He immediately dialed the communications center.

_"Yeah, I need a reverse cell look-up on Walker's phone."_ He could hear chatter in the background but drowned it out, focused on finding Annie.

"_All right, you four, report to polygraph."_

_ "No, I've got the last known location. I just need to know if it starts moving."_

_"Let's go Anderson. Step to." _

He recognized Bill's voice, one of Arthur Campbell's goons.

_"Look, I'm sorry, this is gonna have to wait."_**I can't leave an operative stranded in the field.**

_ "Now." _

He knew he had no choice. So he ran to Joan.

"Joan, will you call off Arthur's attack dog? I'm trying to re-establish contact with Annie."

"Leave the intell with me, we'll make sure someone fills the gap."

**What?** "I don't understand."

"It's a company-wide directive, everyone's coming under scrutiny.

**So? Just because someone's overly suspicious, he has to leave his post mid-mission and abandon an operative to take a stupid lie-detector test?**

"Are you ready yet, hot shot?"

Seriously, he didn't act like he was better than everyone else, did he? Was it just because he'd been allowed to keep his job after losing his sight that people like this guy are so snippety with him? He walked off toward polygraph, extremely pissed, and prayed nothing happened to Annie while he was gone.

Which brought to mind the other reason he was currently squeezing the heck out of the Gripmaster—the polygraph test. He couldn't believe they'd pressed the issue of his blindness so much. He was already furious over having to leave his post to do the stupid test, and then they pushed him even further with the questions they asked him.

_"I'm going to ask you a series of questions to act as a control sample. Is that okay?"_

**Really? It's not like we haven't done a dozen of these before**. He didn't feel like being falsely civil at the moment. _"No, it's not okay. You wanted the truth, correct?"_

_ "Just answer the questions please. Your name is August Anderson?"_

_ "Yes, but my friends call me Auggie. You can call me August." _**Get this over with and let me go back to work.**

_"Yes or no, please. You were born in Glencoe, Illinois, is that correct?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "Okay, you lost your eyesight while with special forces in Iraq. Is that correct?"_

He sighed**. Come on—there are other base questions you can ask. Do you have to go immediately for my sight? Just for that…** _"I'm sorry, you'll have to be more specific."_

_ "You were in Tikrit?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "There was an incident, an explosion."_

_ "Yes."_

_ "And now you're blind."_

_ "No, I'm not." _**Here it comes…**

_"You're not?" _

**He sounds like a character in a movie, just found out the hero he has in cuffs across the table from him isn't actually blind and powerless…right before his captive breaks his bonds and turns on him.**

_"What does the machine say? I spent twelve months down on the Farm. I did my SERE training at Fort Bragg, and I have four mean-ass older brothers. You don't think I know how to lie well enough to beat that thing?" _**I shouldn't be stuck here.**

_"Are you happy with your current position as field ops support?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "Have you requested more field responsibilities?"_

_ "Once or twice."_

_ "Yes or no."_

_ "Yes." _**That's why I have to get Annie back—she understands my need to be out in the field. She took me out there and didn't care about what Joan would say.**

_"Are you frustrated with your superiors' decision to keep you on the bench?"_

_ "Well yes, but I think that's understandable." _**You try getting field work into your blood, then losing your vision and being forced to sit on the sidelines. I think you'd be a little frustrated too.**

_"Do you believe in the concept of a greater good?"_

**Come on already. Get to the point. **_"Yes I suppose."_

_ "And do you believe you're qualified to be the self-arbiter of that?"_

_ "What are you getting at?"_

_ "Let me rephrase. Do you think that there's a part of you that wants to punish the agency for what happened to you?"_

**This**** is what they dragged me in for? ****This**** is why they pulled me away from finding Annie and bringing her back home? I can't believe it. **_"I don't believe this—There is an operative out there, somewhere, in the cold, alone and in danger and every second I am spending here twaddling with you is a second I am not helping her to get back home. _**"I'm with you all the way home…I'm working on bringing you home." **_So, let's cut the psychobabble and just ask me the question you want to know. Did I corrupt the Zurich exchange? No."_

_"That's not what I want to know."_

_ "It's not?" _**Really?**

_"Are you the source in the Liza Hearn leak?"_

_ "What?" _**You're kidding me. That's why I'm here?**

_ "Are you Liza Hearn's source?"_

_ "No. Are we done now?"_ **I'm out of here. You sidelined me for this stupid purpose and now I have no way of knowing if Annie's okay, or if I failed her because of you.**

He passed the test, of course. He really wasn't even too concerned about the whole Liza Hearn problem to begin with, and then Joan came up to him and told him the news as if it was something he was worried about.

_"Auggie. Good news. You passed your polygraph. You'll be back at your desk tomorrow morning."_

_ "Imagine that. See you tomorrow."_

Yes, imagine that. As if he was supposed to be pleased about getting back to work tomorrow. Tomorrow could have been too late for Annie. What good would there be in going to work tomorrow if she were dead tonight?

He shuddered at that thought and squeezed the Gripmaster a few more times. He'd received word that she was on her way home and had left a message for her, even trying to inject some of his normal humor into it. Joan had told him to go home and get some sleep, but he knew Annie would be coming back to Langley before heading home herself, and he wasn't about to leave her again.


	2. Campbell

**Sorry this chapter's shorter, but there really wasn't too much to do with it (at least that I could see). I wasn't really inspired too much, but I really wanted to put something up and knew that if I didn't do it now I'd likely not do it for a while, or at all. This is just Joan and Arthur, but I couldn't resist doing something with that little bit where Arthur walks past Auggie while he's in the darkened room. We'll go to Annie's POV next chapter.**

**I'm a little disappointed with all the spoilers going around. I have nothing against people writing about them, as long as they're posted in the story description on the main page so that if you don't want to know what's going to happen you can try your hardest to stay away (which really is much harder when there's still so few stories). Granted, some of these ones that don't say spoilers are included can only be identified as having spoilers if you've already heard that such a scenario IS a spoiler. But still-sometimes I choose to read something that says SPOILERS in the description (and usually kick myself later for having read it, but I have only myself to blame) and then other times I'm just happily reading a cute story when all of a sudden I'm being told of something that (heartbreakingly) may be happening a few episodes from now. It's one thing when I'm reading stories about a show that originally airs in the UK (like Merlin or Doctor Who), but when this is an American show (so to speak)...**

**Sorry. I know this isn't the case for all stories, but it seems lately that I've been reading a lot of spoiler bits in stories, and not all of them warn me. I'll gladly take any offended messages, if it gets me reviews. Yes, I'm jonesing that much for reviews, unashamedly.**

**So here is part two, just a little filler with the repercussions of the stupid polygraph. **

* * *

Joan Campbell glanced at the clock in the lower right-hand corner of her computer screen and sighed. The digits read 8:30 PM and she knew that Arthur wasn't going to be able to get away for dinner. She wrote a few more lines on the report she was typing up about the day's events. Every available DPD agent had been sent for a polygraph test and each one passed.

She'd known that none of her agents were responsible for the leak, but Arthur was relentless in his pursuit of finding the guilty person and had chosen one of the worst moments to run the tests. One of her best agents was stuck in a foreign country and her husband decided he wanted to pull her people off the case and see if any of them were the leak—definitely _not_ the right time.

There was a knock at the door and she looked up to find Arthur leaning against the doorframe.

"Hungry?"

She couldn't help the slight smile that crossed her lips. "Yes." She saved her report and shut down her computer. Arthur crossed the room and took her bag from her. She opened her mouth to dispute him but he held up a finger and shook his head. She closed her mouth and let her teeth grind together a bit before following him out the door.

Neither spoke until they were in Arthur's car and driving through town.

"Where are we going?"

Arthur didn't answer her for a minute, and when he did he only said, "dinner." Joan frowned slightly but sat back and watched the streets of the capitol fly by her.

They pulled up to a small restaurant they'd visited once or twice over the years, a classy place that didn't require a super fancy get-up or a payment plan. Arthur ordered one of the best wines the place had and they talked about things other than work while they waited for their food to come.

Halfway through his steak (he ordered it with a smile and actually winked at Joan), Arthur took a sip of his wine and, setting the glass down, looked at Joan with a contemplative expression. Joan let go of her fork and took a drink of water before questioning her husband's glance.

"What was Anderson's problem today?"

Joan frowned. "What?"

"August Anderson, your tech guy. What was his problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"When I came to your office to read you in on the Zurich exchange, I saw him in the tech room, just squeezing a gripmaster. He looked—well, he looked pissed. Do you have any idea why?"

Joan rotated her water glass on the table and tapped her heel against the floor in a quick staccato as she thought through everything that had happened that day and why Auggie was so off-balance. She took another quick sip of water and twisted in her seat to face Arthur a little better.

"I think you know why."

Arthur sat back slightly, totally un-expectant of the answer she gave. He frowned a bit and sputtered. "_I_ know why? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, Arthur! Think about it—what did you put my agents through today?"

"A company-directed polygraph. You knew I was going to have you do it."

"Why were we called into work so unexpectedly? What happened that was big enough to get both of our phones ringing?"

"The bomb and the subsequent botched exchange. What are you getting at, Joan?"

"What is my tech op's job during such a situation?"

"To get our operative home and if possible complete the mission."

"Yes. So what could have happened to make my tech op so upset?" She didn't give him a chance to answer this time. "Auggie had just lost contact with Annie when your little sidekick Bill pulled him away from his station to sit through your fricking polygraph test. You changed her liaison in the middle of a mission, Arthur. That's not acceptable for any agent, let alone one who's still pretty brand-new to the game. She was out there, trusting him to bring her home, and your need to find this leak could have cost her her life. Walker's a bleeding heart, Arthur. Auggie knows she's not likely to take his absence lightly. _That_ is his problem."

Joan sat back and took a long drag of her wine. Arthur rested his elbow on the table, leaned his chin on his hand and pressed his finger against his lips. When he spoke his words were soft, almost repentant, practically pleading with her to understand his motivations.

"Someone with whom I am trusting information is breaking that trust and selling it to the press. It could cost the agency important successes, credibility—it could cost us some lives. I _need_ to find that leak and plug it, soon. Walker's on her way home _and_ she's completing the mission. She's a great agent, Joan. She handled this well from what I hear and I think she can handle a lot more."

"She did handle it well, Arthur, but at what cost? Even in a place like this you need to trust _someone_. And you won't stay alive for long if you don't trust the voice in your ear to lead you home. Annie _is_ a great agent, but how long will we be able to keep her if she decides she can't trust anyone? You say your trust has been broken—I think today you may have broken hers."

Arthur fished for an answer. "I think she's stronger than that."

"I think she is too. Let's just hope that her friendship with Auggie is enough to make her understand why she was left alone."

* * *

**By the way, if any of the dialogue in _any_ of my stories ever seems off or out of character, I have a standard by which certain "acceptable" words are never spoken or written by me. Even "pissed" is a new one to come out (I usually save it for when I'm thoroughly p.o.'d). Just thought I'd throw that out there. **


	3. Annie

**So sorry for the long wait! I had to be to school by August 18th and we left for a few days of vacation before hand. Since then things have been so busy. But I'm determined to get this done! There should only be one more chapter, where she and Auggie finally have a much-needed talk. This chapter's a little longer than what I had ready to submit a few minutes ago, but it's still shorter than I'd really like. If anyone has any ideas of how to make it longer, please, share them with me. I might just revise the chapter (giving credit where credit is due, of course). I just wanted to get something up asap, so here goes. Thank you all so much for your reviews. I think I have more for this first, two-chapter half of this story than I do for my 15 chapter Bones story! Thanks a million!**

* * *

Annie handed off the case and tucked the cab fare into her coat pocket. She'd be walking back to the office. There was too much on her mind that she had to think about, and she didn't want to be around anybody just yet. So even though she knew her feet would probably hate her in the morning for walking so far in her heels, she set off toward Langley.

She managed to go a few minutes without thinking about the deepest hurt she'd experienced while in Switzerland, but eventually it came to the front of her mind. In the middle of a mission, in a crucial, life-or-death moment, she called home—she called Auggie—and he wasn't there. In her short time in the Agency she'd come to find that she could trust Auggie, even if she couldn't trust anybody else. From the first hour of her first day he'd been by her side with a helpful comment, a funny quip to cheer her up, a solid presence to remind her that she's not alone. Yet today, when she needed that most, he wasn't there.

She wrapped her coat tighter around her body. **I guess you really can't trust anyone in this place**_._ Even the thought left a bitter taste in her mouth, the idea of not trusting Auggie just so unpleasant. He had promised her. After her comment about everyone having silver cases and orange wristbands, and not knowing who was on her side, he'd immediately let her know he was there for her.

_"Seems like orange wristbands and metal briefcases are all the rage in Zurich, Auggie. It's getting hard to tell who's on my team out here."_

_ "I am, okay? I'm on your team. I'm with you all the way home."_

Except he wasn't. In fact, she hadn't heard from him since her last phone call, when Eyal broke her phone. She'd finally gotten phone access at the Turk's, the woman's dead body at her feet, Eyal talking to her, calm as ever. But when she got through to Langley, she didn't hear the comforting voice of her best friend, asking what had happened. She heard someone else's.

_"Chesapeake Bay Letter Press. How can I help you?"_

_ "Offset Litho and Proof Desk, please."_

_ "Hello, Helvetica, it's good to have you back."_

_ "I'm sorry, do I know you? I-I-I need to speak with my normal service representative." __**Who are you, and where is Auggie? Do you not realize how critical this moment is, how much I need him here?**_

_ "Officer Anderson is currently unavailable. I'm going to be your acting liaison now. My name's Braithwaite, Eric Braithwaite."_

_**Unavailable? **__"Acting liaison? I don't understand." (Eyal speaks. "Hang up the phone Annie.")_

_ "You're not DPD?"_

_ "I'm NCS. We're going to be handling your extraction." _

_ ("Changing liaisons mid-mission, with no handover?")_

_**He's right. Where's Auggie? What's going on?**_

_"I need your twenty."_

_ ("Hey, we can't rely on normal channels. We must assume everything's been compromised.")_

_ "Helvetica, I want to remind you to please just follow protocol."_

_ She looks at Eyal still. "Give me one reason to trust you."_

_ "It doesn't matter if you can trust me right now. You should be asking if you can use me."_

Auggie wasn't there. She'd needed him and he wasn't there. Instead, she placed her trust in Eyal (she had to place it somewhere) and hoped he'd get her home safely. Obviously the CIA couldn't be trusted to get the job done.

She'd nearly been blown up, caught by the Swiss police, killed by a Mossad Kidon agent, captured by more Mossad agents, killed in a car accident—and where was the man who promised to be with her all the way home?

He was _unavailable_. Just that morning she was comparing him to a St. Bernard…

_"Guten Morgan. How was your flight?"_

_ "Like a giant nursery ward in the sky. I got ten minutes of shut eye, max."_

_ "Well, who said our career isn't glamorous?"_

_ "Now I've got to turn around and fly right back. Any chance upgrading out of coach?"_

_ "You'll have to take that up with the appropriations committee. Good luck with that on a Sunday."_

_ She smiled at the sing-song tone of his voice. "Come on, Auggie. I'll be fighting the Jet Stream."_

_ "Hey, anytime you want to switch places, just let me know."_

_**Oh, Auggie. How badly you must want to do just that, to be in my place, in the field. I wish I could do that for you. I would, in a heartbeat.**_

_"Someone's a little cheeky this morning. Too bad…I was going to get you a souvenir." __**Don't pity him. He doesn't want pity.**_

_"Yeah?"_

_ "Yeah, a St. Bernard. Stuffed, of course. Kind of remind me of you."_

_ "Great, I remind you of Cujo. It's the slobbering, isn't it?"_

_ "Yeah, that and they're cute and dependable, and when you're feeling low they bring you booze…That's my contact. Wish me luck."_

_ "Good luck."_

What happened to dependable? That was really the first thing she thought of to compare the two when she first saw the stuffed dog in the gift shop. He was there for her, whenever she needed it, on a mission or not. Except for the time she really, desperately needed him to come to her rescue, he was _unavailable_.

As she caught sight of Langley, Annie sped up her steps a bit. It was chilly outside and all she wanted was to get things done so she could go home for a nice, hot shower. Then she would lie in bed and try to get some sleep, but she knew she'd end up watching late night movies with her cat instead.

The guards let her through, though they probably found it a little odd that she was walking, alone, at night. Few people were roaming the hallways, a fact for which she was very grateful, as she wasn't ready to think about the mission any more than she had to. A quick glance at Joan's office showed that her boss had gone home. She sighed, relieved to find that all she had to do was type up her report, and not answer any questions about it.

The skills she learned at the Farm were put to use, allowing her to tell her side of the story without any of her feelings showing in her writing. She printed the document and left it in her inbox as a reminder to give it to Joan later. She had her coat back on and was making her way to the door when some movement in the shadows caught her eye. At first she panicked a little, but then she realized that the movement was coming from the tech booth—Auggie's lab.

With slow, silent steps she moved closer, and in the dim light she recognized the form of her best friend, holding something in his hand and spinning ever so slightly in his chair. All the emotions Annie had locked away while she wrote her report came crashing back, and she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep again, or see him, if she didn't confront him immediately.

So with determined steps and a firm jaw she made her way into the tech booth, shut the door and cleared her throat.

"I believe you have some explaining to do, August Anderson."


	4. Explain

**Last chapter! I know, it's about time, seeing as the season finale just aired (and I haven't seen it yet! Soooo busy! This weekend, I promise!). I really hope this turned out as well as I wanted it to, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I had fun writing this and I hope you had fun reading it. Enjoy!**

* * *

"I believe you have some explaining to do, August Anderson."

Her voice broke through his fog of thoughts and he sat up straighter. It took him a second to recognize the voice.

"Annie?" His voice was eager, almost desperate. He instinctively sniffed the air, searching for a hint of that grapefruit perfume he's come to adore—because, sure enough, whenever he smelled that grapefruit scent he knew that she was there. He adored that perfume because he adored her. This time, however, the air was significantly devoid of grapefruit, and he kicked himself for not realizing it earlier. _Of course—she wouldn't have brought the perfume with her to Switzerland, because she was supposed to be back later that day. She wasn't supposed to be stranded there for so long._ He quickly composed himself and cleared his throat. "You're back."

He expected her to grab a chair and pull it over so she could sit next to him—like she usually did—but she didn't. Instead, he heard the distinct sounds of her toe tapping against the tile floor. He sensed the tension in her stance and was pretty sure her arms were folded across her chest too.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." She ignored the way his face fell, too angry to want to think about it. But as she remembered calling him and getting someone else, her voice softened as the feeling of abandonment welled up within her once more. "Where were you?"

Auggie looked up in her general direction and Annie felt her heart pull at the look of sorrow on his face. "I was forced to take a polygraph, to prove I'm not the Liza Hearn leak."

"What?"

She wasn't expecting that. In all the scenarios she'd come up with for why he wasn't there when she called, why he wasn't there to finish out the mission with her, that was not one of them. She'd thought maybe he went home to get some sleep. Maybe he'd stepped out to get some coffee and just hadn't come back. Maybe he'd just forgotten she was out there (okay, she knew that wasn't the case, but it's what her mind had come up with).

"Right after I lost contact with you, they pulled me away from _my job_ to play twenty questions with a polygraph. It was all to satisfy Arthur Campbell's paranoia."

"_That's_ why I found myself talking to Braithwaite from NCS instead of Auggie from DPD?"

His face twisted a bit more with guilt. "I'm so sorry about that. I told you I'd bring you home, that I'd be with you all the way. I told you you could trust me, and then I left you. I tried, Annie. I tried to get back to my post, but they wouldn't let me. They literally pulled me away from my desk right after I lost contact with you. They wouldn't let me try to re-establish it, or do anything that I was _supposed_ to be doing to get you back. Figuring out who the leak is was more important to them. They made me break my promise to you, and I am so, incredibly sorry."

She was silent for a moment, and that hesitation broke Auggie's heart. He started to worry that she'd never want to work with him again after this. He cleared his throat to relieve the pressure. "Did you make it out okay? Are you alright?"

She didn't answer right away and he started to panic a little. _Will she not even want to talk to me anymore?_ He couldn't handle that. He allowed himself to curse his blindness for not letting him see her, to see for himself if she was alright or not. From what he'd heard, she probably had a few marks on her, and he wanted to know how bad they were. If she didn't tell him he'd have no way of finding out.

After a few seconds he heard the sound of plastic wheels rolling across the floor and he felt the displacement of air as she sat next to him. "I've got a few stitches in my shoulder, courtesy of a piece of shrapnel, and Mossad decided to check the airbags in the car Eyal lifted for us. Other than that, I'm fine."

Auggie grimaced at the mental images her description generated, and he still wished he could see her to assess the damage himself. She was just the type of person to make light of her injuries, and after abandoning her in the field he wanted to make sure she wasn't going to suffer for anything that happened out there.

"So, our friendly Mossad operative didn't turn out to be a double agent after all."

Annie smiled a little. "No, but he did destroy my phone 'cause he thought that we were responsible for blowing the pass."

"When it was his guys all along."

"You know how these things go."

Auggie "stared" silently in her direction for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was low and intense. "I tried, Annie. I really did. I don't make light of my promises, and I did promise you I'd be with you till you got home. I went to Joan to try and get myself out of the polygraph, but it was out of her hands. I had absolutely no choice, and I hated them for it. I hated myself for it, for leaving you out there with no way home and no friendly voice in your ear. I should have done something more, I should have talked my way out of it—"

He was cut off by the sudden presence of two fingers on his lips.

"Shh. Auggie, I know. I get that now. Nobody told me what had happened here while I was gone, and I was angry. I had no idea why you weren't there when I called, and so my mind kept telling me all sorts of things, reasons why you were gone."

"What did your mind tell you?"

She hesitated.

"Annie, please. What did your mind tell you was more important to me than getting you home?"

She couldn't resist the pleading in his voice. "I don't know, silly stuff, like, maybe you'd stepped out for some coffee, or went home to sleep…"

She trailed off and Auggie reached out to grab her hands, finally finding them and holding them firmly in his grasp.

"Anne Walker, I want you to listen to me, and understand me, and never doubt it, okay?" She nodded even though he couldn't see it. "Nothing is ever more important to me than bringing operatives home safely. _Nothing_. Especially not when it's you out there, in the field, with the only true friendly being my voice in your ear. I'll have somebody else get me some coffee, and if I absolutely need to sleep—and I mean, I'm about to drop dead from exhaustion and couldn't possibly stay conscious any longer, or I'm ordered to go rest—if I absolutely have to go sleep I will have someone from my team keeping watch over you, and I'll have them wake me up as soon as you need me. Okay? I promise you this, and nothing, no one, not even Arthur Campbell or the President himself can make me break this promise to you, alright? Nothing. Do you understand me?"

His sightless eyes were fixed on her, his expression so sincere and intense that she found it difficult to breathe for a second. His grip on her hands was so firm, warm and secure that she squeezed them back in response. "I understand."

He relaxed a minute bit and waited a second more before releasing her hands and sitting back in his chair. He ran a hand through his hair and heard Annie pick something up off of his desk.

"What's this?"

He reached out his palm and she placed the Gripmaster in it.

"Ah. This is my way of getting rid of tension. I can't really pace anymore, and it sure beats punching something or throwing things."

"Why do you have it out now? Was the polygraph really that crazy?"

Auggie squeezed the device a couple times, just playing around with it. "Come on, Annie. Did none of what I've said tonight mean anything to you?"

Her eyes widened a little. "You were tense because of me?"

He chucked and shook his head in disbelief. "Yes, Annie. I had no idea how you were going to get home, _when_ you were going to get home, and how'd you feel about me once you got home. I was afraid you'd hate me forever."

Annie's expression softened and she grabbed one of his hands. "I could never hate you, Auggie. Certainly not forever."

He squeezed her hand and interlaced their fingers. "Come on. Are you ready to go home?"

Annie nodded and then verbalized her answer. They grabbed their stuff and headed out the door. Once they hit the fresh evening air Annie paused and Auggie stopped beside her.

"Auggie?"

"Yeah?"

"I still trust you. I always will."

He couldn't help it. He reached up and placed his hands on her cheeks. With one swift motion, hoping his guessing skills were up to par, he swooped in and pressed his lips to hers. He heard Annie grunt in surprise, but after a second or two she was kissing him back.

He pulled away when he felt himself getting too lost in her kiss, and pressed his forehead to hers. They were both breathing heavily and Auggie felt his lips pull into a smile.

"You have no idea how much that means to me."


End file.
